As greed, a lack of ethics and a desire to outdo one’s friends increase across the globe, so too does corruption, deceit, dishonesty and financial crime. Sadly, too few perpetrators are brought to book and too little of the stolen money is recovered.

Because prevention is therefore better than cure, the question all managers and executives responsible for the financial performance of their department, division or company should be asking is: how can I actually PREVENT collusion and corruption?

That, of course, assumes that all such leaders are themselves ethical and honest!

Sadly, that’s not necessarily the case. And, what makes things even more complicated is the massive disconnect that unethical people have between their actions and how they see themselves.

Case in point: have you ever noticed how 99.9% of people accused of any crime, when asked in a court of law how they plead, with all the conviction of an honest person who has been terribly wronged, plead … “NOT GUILTY.”

Yes, I know that’s their legal and constitutional right, but the point I’m making is that none of them actually considers themselves to be guilty.

Many political leaders have made a career for themselves out of financial crime to line their pockets, buy themselves luxury cars and live the high life. Do they see themselves as bad people? Not at all!

Certain business people have manipulated the finances of their companies and used other means to divert millions into their bank accounts. And they just think they’re being awfully smart, not bad.          

Over the years, in my own business, I have had employees who have engaged in dishonest activities and I have had to hold them accountable. What have they done? Like all the others, they have denied all wrongdoing and been highly indignant that their actions have been challenged. 

Why? Why? Why?

When you strip the complexity of all deceit down to its smelly underwear, it boils down to this: when any human sets out to deceive others, the first person they deceive is themselves. 

And, once you’ve deceived yourself, you lose touch with reality and start living in a parallel universe of your own creation. This allows you to believe your own lies so you can quite happily live with yourself and actually get great satisfaction out of your criminal activities and not be troubled by your conscience in any way.

Don’t believe it? Just take a look around at the political leaders who have been accused of corruption. Do they think they’ve done anything wrong? Not a damn!

That’s because they’re blind to the truth about themselves. Now, what they don’t realise is that others can see things about them that they can’t. So, ask yourself if that’s how you want to live your life – being unaware of things in you that are quite visible to others. 

I don’t want that. I want to see things as they are so I can do something about it. I don’t want people walking around thinking I’m an idiot and I’m not aware of the fact that I’m making an idiot of myself!   

If you’re a business leader who wants to make a difference in your company, your community and your country, do some serious reflection to examine your level of self-awareness. And if you start to realise that comments that others have made about you have some truth in them, do something about it. You can choose to ignore them and believe the lies you sell yourself, but then you’re no different from the corrupt politicians who swan about thinking they’re actually awfully smart when everybody else knows the truth about them.

If your leadership team needs help on their journey to self-awareness, I’d be happy to help!

Alan Hosking is the Publisher of HR Future magazine, www.hrfuture.net and @HRFuturemag. He is an internationally recognised authority on leadership competencies for the future and teaches experienced and younger business leaders how to lead with empathy, compassion, integrity, purpose and agility. In 2018, he was named by US-based web site Disruptordaily.com as one of the “Top 25 Future of Work Influencers to Follow on Twitter“. In 2020, he was named one of the “Top 200 Global Power Thought Leaders to watch in 2021” by peopleHum in India. In 2022, he has been named on the Power List of the “Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2022” by LeaderHum.